Mistborn FPS (Demo available!)

[Spinn he/him]

Just now, Kidpen said:

This is a really cool project! I'm curious, are you planning to put this on itch.io or gamejolt or any other such game sharing website? Or just keep it as a download on here? Both are cool, mostly just wondering!

I hadn't thought about publishing it, actually O.o I've mostly been thinking about this as a portfolio game to get a job with. But now that you mention it, yeah probably!

[Hoidolasium he/him]

Finally got around to watching the video/playing the demo!

The mistless version runs a lot better, although there's still some motion blur (That's probably just me, I just wanted to mention it in case anyone else had the same problem when running it). Loving the progress, I do have a few small suggestions/questions as always though.

-Maybe you could put a trigger for when the targets get hit with a coin?

-Can you run/jump on all the roofs now?

-Pewter jumps should probably be around roof height. This would a) be more in line with the books and b) encourage players to use steel/iron to get around more. Also, it would be interesting to sort of add savantism, in that players are going to be almost always burning pewter, so attacks/speed/jumps could be pitiful without pewter.

-Have you decided what category of game this is going to be? I think it will help your process a lot since attacks and NPC interactions have not been added, so that will guide them.

[Spinn he/him]

On 7/20/2020 at 9:23 PM, Hoidolasium said:

Finally got around to watching the video/playing the demo!

The mistless version runs a lot better, although there's still some motion blur (That's probably just me, I just wanted to mention it in case anyone else had the same problem when running it). Loving the progress, I do have a few small suggestions/questions as always though.

-Maybe you could put a trigger for when the targets get hit with a coin?

-Can you run/jump on all the roofs now?

-Pewter jumps should probably be around roof height. This would a) be more in line with the books and encourage players to use steel/iron to get around more. Also, it would be interesting to sort of add savantism, in that players are going to be almost always burning pewter, so attacks/speed/jumps could be pitiful without pewter.

-Have you decided what category of game this is going to be? I think it will help your process a lot since attacks and NPC interactions have not been added, so that will guide them.

Coinshot targets - I've been thinking about how that could work in-world, but haven't really come up with something yet. A really cool thing would be to let coins get stuck in the targets, though!

Jumping - I'm looking around for a 3D artist willing to do props for the project, because I want to be able to do exactly what you're saying - jumping between rooftops like a superhero.

Pewter jump height - My goal is that pewter will permit you to jump onto houses and ledges of a very specific and recognizable height. Right now, I just don't have the 3D models that will allow it.

Category - I'm leaning more and more towards stealth action like Assassin's Creed or Dishonored because that's what the mood and the books are about. If I can make that work, however, only the future can tell.

Edited July 22, 2020 by Spinn

[Spinn he/him]

Tin Update!

1. Tin added to the demo! Right now, Tin only thins out the mist. I'm thinking about adding a zoom function to simulate better vision.
2. The demo should now be a lot lighter on your computers.
3. Auto-pewter added to the demo. If you land heavily without burning pewter, you'll automatically burn a good chunk of it before you take damage. I'm thinking this should be an upgrade for pewter when / if this becomes a proper game.
4. While you're falling too fast to land safely, the screen shakes proportionately to the damage you'll take.
5. Trying out new Metal colors. My thoughts at the time of working on them were that they could represent the contents, so for example, Brass (orange) metallurgically contains mostly Copper (red) and Zinc (yellow). However, with the system below, I'm thinking that in each pair, the metals should have similar colors instead, so I might change back to what they were before.

 

What's up next?

So, now that I have the metals I originally set out to do, I'll let you in on what my secret plan is for the next updates.

1. Vials Inventory

This is the smaller feature. I'm thinking that the player should be able to pick up vials and drink one whenever they want to. You should be able to have a stash of vials in case you run out, so you don't have to find it randomly lying on the ground.

2. Controls

Ooh boy. This is a bigger one.

Well... what I see already now, is that if I add any more metals, controls will become confusing. Which button activates which metal? Which metal corresponds to which color? If steelpushing and ironpulling are connected to the left and right mouse buttons, how will you control combat?

To answer that, basically... I'm thinking of switching to / adding functionality for Xbox and Playstation controllers.

With a game controller, I could set steel and iron to the triggers, which would give you strength control for those metals. That way, I could set the right bumper to attack, the left bumper to open the vial inventory, and the directional arrows to control a metal choice wheel, similar to Horizon Zero Dawn's quick inventory. Basically, cycle through metal pairs with left/right, and select metal with up/down (arranged according to push/pull, of course). That way, I could continue adding metals as I go along without sacrificing buttons - just add more pairs to cycle through - check the picture below for reference.

Sooo... How do these controls translate to mouse and keyboard? Good question! I'm still working on that part, I'm afraid. Should I use Q and E to cycle the metal wheel -  with R and F to choose the metal? Should I set Attack to middle mouse button? Write your suggestions below!

[Kidpen he/him]

My main thought is that maybe you could just use the scroll wheel to choose metals?

[Hoidolasium he/him]

What if time slowed when you were picking metals? Not completely frozen, but you could select/deselect metals with the mouse or the joystick.

Also, maybe burning tin would let you pick out/track enemies that are at a distance or behind walls, once you add them?

Edited July 28, 2020 by Hoidolasium
second suggestion

[Spinn he/him]

Big Saturday Update!

Cool things thrine have I to appease both eyes of thine.

Inventory

You now pick up vials and drink them from your inventory (hold Tab to open). I had some inspiration and modeled the vial inventory after Horizon Zero Dawn's weapons menu. It's still a bit clunky and not very pretty, but it works just fine. @Hoidolasium your idea to slow time while it's open worked great. When I've had a chance to prettify it, I'll make epic gifs with that time slow! So psyched!

Tin update

While I was working on this, I remembered a scene from the books when an allomancer had to use Tin just to see while they were hurt - their eyes were so blurry... So I made that a thing. While you're hurt now, your eyes will blur, things are spinning, and Tin may be your savior - watch out, though! You'll also take more damage, as you feel every blow hurt that much more. Pewter counters it, of course, making you feel less of the pain.

Visuals

Last but not least. During my experiments, I happened upon a tutorial how to make proper night light, which also showed me that Unreal has a built-in function for mist! F yes, thought! And I think you'll agree. No, really. It's reeaally pretty now! However, do tell me if it's harder or easier on your PCs than the last build/s!

Download the new build from the original post!

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

pretty cool!

[Spinn he/him]

Melee Combat Update! (Project v0.09)

A prototype of a melee combat system has been added to the demo! I'm using Unreal's default character, so no combat animations or weapons yet, only a faceless mannequin who runs up to you and brings you damage. If you happen to be experienced with 3D modelling and animation, or know of someone who is, hook me up!

Let's get to the good stuff!

Features

NPCs

Allied, enemy and neutral NPCs have been placed sparsely throughout the city. The enemies are four guards and a Koloss. The Koloss is basically just double everything that of a guard: size, strength, health and speed. Currently, all NPCs show their current mood / behaviour. For example, if one is aggressive (towards you OR towards another NPC), they'll be red.

Melee Attack

Press Middle Mouse Button to make a close ranged attack in front of you (no model or animation yet). Burning Pewter make your melee attacks double in damage.

Coin Shot

Shoot a coin into an NPC to damage it!

 

That's what I've got for you for this update. I'm updating a lot less now that I'm back in school after the summer, but I'm still getting some work done during the week.

Make sure to download the demo in the original post!

[Spinn he/him]

What's your opinion on rioting & soothing, as a fan of Mistborn?

There is one thing I'd like some feedback on. With the implementation of NPCs in v0.09, I added basic behaviors that NPCs switch between: Aggressive, Fearful, Suspicious, Friendly and Neutral. My thinking is that rioting and soothing will let you manipulate these (and maybe other) emotions. So here are a few questions for you about how you'd want that to work:

1. What emotions would be useful in a stealth-action roleplaying game? (Ex. Sadness? Curiosity?)
2. Should you be able to manipulate one single NPC at a time, or is it an area-of-effect? (Alternatively: Should you be able to upgrade it from single target to area-of-effect?)
3. If it's for a single target only, should you be able to see the NPC's current levels, or should you riot / sooth them just based on their outwards apparent behavior? (Example for Alt.1: "Nameless Obligator - 25% aggression, 10% fear, 10% suspicion")
4. Would you rather stop and choose between emotions every time you affect a target, or do you want to choose an emotion first and then affect targets with that emotion while you're moving?
   1. (Example for alt 1: You run and aim towards a Guard. You press the Riot button and a menu for the Guard's emotions opens, as time slows down to let you choose. You overflow the Guard with fear. You close the menu and see the effect. You run towards the next guard. Rinse, repeat.)
   2. (Example for alt 2: You're standing behind a wall. You press the Riot button and a menu for emotions opens, as time slows down to let you choose. You choose Fear. You close the menu. You run out from behind the wall and aim towards a couple of guards. Holding the Riot button, you strike fear in each guard you aim towards, in real time.)
5. Should soothing work in the same way as rioting?
6. What are your suggestions, ideas and questions about the system?

[Hoidolasium he/him]

1. Curiosity, anger, and fear are good for everything, but you could have NPCs that are affected more strongly by other emotions as well depending on the situation.

2. Definitely start with only one at a time, but we see skilled Soothers manipulate multiple people individually, so that could be upgraded later. AoE Soothing and Rioting should be seperate, since that's a different skill that gets used a lot, especially by TLR and the Soothing stations he has. Of course, people might get more suspicious of you use AoE Soothing on them than individual.

3. If you want to stay true to the books, you have to judge by the NPCs behavior. There definitely has to be a lot of leniency if you do that route as people might misjudge it pretty easily. I don't know how much of an upgrade system you're planning but maybe you can read people qualitatively instead of quantitatively, and your accuracy improves as you upgrade that skill.

4. Probably depends on how subtle you want the mechanic to be. If NPCs will act differently based on multiple emotional states, there's a lot of room for depth in the mechanic, but it sounds like hell to script. If it's just sort of (No fear - little fear - average fear - high fear - irrational fear) and one emotion at a time, it would be more fluid just to have it selected and affect each NPC afterwards.

5. Yes, that's how they work in the books, and it makes sense to have each emotion be on a sliding scale, at least to me.

[Pyroelectro]

This is a really cool project! I've been working on a Mistborn game in Dreams PS4 and I found that using a controller really works well so that would be a great idea to support. Good luck with this project!

[I Am A Fish he/him]

Welcome to the Shard! 

This looks absolutely awesome!

 

[BridgeFourRecruit]

On 8/30/2020 at 9:41 AM, Spinn said:

What's your opinion on rioting & soothing, as a fan of Mistborn?

There is one thing I'd like some feedback on. With the implementation of NPCs in v0.09, I added basic behaviors that NPCs switch between: Aggressive, Fearful, Suspicious, Friendly and Neutral. My thinking is that rioting and soothing will let you manipulate these (and maybe other) emotions. So here are a few questions for you about how you'd want that to work:

1. What emotions would be useful in a stealth-action roleplaying game? (Ex. Sadness? Curiosity?)
2. Should you be able to manipulate one single NPC at a time, or is it an area-of-effect? (Alternatively: Should you be able to upgrade it from single target to area-of-effect?)
3. If it's for a single target only, should you be able to see the NPC's current levels, or should you riot / sooth them just based on their outwards apparent behavior? (Example for Alt.1: "Nameless Obligator - 25% aggression, 10% fear, 10% suspicion")
4. Would you rather stop and choose between emotions every time you affect a target, or do you want to choose an emotion first and then affect targets with that emotion while you're moving?
   1. (Example for alt 1: You run and aim towards a Guard. You press the Riot button and a menu for the Guard's emotions opens, as time slows down to let you choose. You overflow the Guard with fear. You close the menu and see the effect. You run towards the next guard. Rinse, repeat.)
   2. (Example for alt 2: You're standing behind a wall. You press the Riot button and a menu for emotions opens, as time slows down to let you choose. You choose Fear. You close the menu. You run out from behind the wall and aim towards a couple of guards. Holding the Riot button, you strike fear in each guard you aim towards, in real time.)
5. Should soothing work in the same way as rioting?
6. What are your suggestions, ideas and questions about the system?

Okay. Just found this thread today! And THANK YOU first and foremost. This is the dopest storming pet project I’ve seen. 
 

1. I think there are some pertenant emotions that every combatant NPC in a stealth action RPG game would have. And. Maybe each one would be on a binary scale e.g. Caution—v—Aggressiveness, Suspicious—v—Secure and that could vary depending on function of the NPC or maybe the function they are carrying out.

  Example: Maybe all guards have the same emotions but a guard patrolling a noise or figure in the mist would have the Suspicious—v— Secure emotion bar that you could alter at the forefront.

Whereas a guard already having seen you might approach the situation with Aggressiveness—v— Fear/Caution at the forefront.

 Either way it would be sweet just to have those elements at our fingertips.

2. I can’t state how hard it would be, but possibly a toggle scenario. Where it’s single target while you are Hidden/Undiscovered/ Etc. but is more AoE when you are fighting for your life already having been caught/unstealthed

3.I think it would be cooler if we didn’t see %s and know exactly what they are feeling like it is in the books, but maybe have some spidey senses, visually color signaling to give us hints instead of deciding they are angry by the way they are running at me with their swords drawn XD. I’m imagining like the common Yellow “!” Over their heads that other stealth games use to denote suspicion but maybe tweek it to include more colors/symbols denoting different emotions they are primarily feeling? 
 

4. Referencing back to my answer for 2, I think given your examples if you were able to pull off both depending on you being hidden/stealth or not it would be amazing and probably the most intuitive. Having more time to focus on each individual when stealthed and also requiring more input from you (only one target at a time) to remain stealthy. Whereas it would be tedious in a combat scenario after you started fighting. 
 

5. I think rioting and soothing should feel essentially the same, with maybe a focus on choosing emotions beforehand when rioting and reacting when soothing as you wouldn’t necessarily KNOW their emotions perfectly.

6. I have listed enough suggestions as it is and so I’m turning this into an appreciation answer! Thank you so much for making this possible game even a sliver of hope in my mind. It would be revolutionary. You are doing something amazing and you deserve a big following/ support crowd! Will definitely be tuning it to the updates from now on!

 

7. Last bit, I recently started playing a game called Spellbreak and couldn’t help but realize the physics in that game are great and it has similar movement styles to what you are attempting potentially so it could be a great point of reference. Idk if that is even helpful or if I look like a fool now, but thanks again for this awesome thread. 

Edited October 10, 2020 by AonEne
language

[Negative_Null]

So, I think this is just me being a moron, but how do I play it? My computer keeps trying to open it as a video . Do I need a special program or am I clicking on the wrong link or something?

[Hoid the Former Drifter he/him]

23 minutes ago, Negative_Null said:

So, I think this is just me being a moron, but how do I play it? My computer keeps trying to open it as a video . Do I need a special program or am I clicking on the wrong link or something?

same here

[Negative_Null]

2 hours ago, Hoid the Drifter said:

same here

Figured it out. At least on mine, you have to extract the files and then you can play it. 

Seems really fun, but like everyone else has been saying, it runs at about 3 fps. I think my favorite moment was when I tried to jump on top of a little building and ended up going over the wall and dying.  

[LukeWasTaken he/him]

Your career shall be watched with great interest...

[DUTCH_POTATO he/him]

Maybe add a way to burn steel or iron, but not be pushing on stuff, or add passive steel/iron sight

[Spinn he/him]

A small post-holidays... um... post!

Sorry for being silent the last couple of months! School's been taking all my energy, but I've got some work done during the holidays and I'm happy to say that I'm making great progress with it! No new version right now, but SOON!

In the next update, there will be guards to battle and a freaking koloss boss monster! I'm having some trouble with their animations, but I'm hoping it'll be solved in the coming week. (They're all free assets, so I took one as close as I could get to a koloss. It's got horns, but it's blue, big and monstrous, so I'mma take that as a win)

I'm also including two new levels: A noble keep interior, and a Skaa Market area!

The mental powers will be delayed some, because they'll heavily depend on what kind of a game I'm actually making, something I've been putting off for way too long. Currently, I'm leaning towards making it a stealth-platformer with a side-dish of action. I think that's the genre that suits the magic system best in a gaming context.

What I'm looking at next is probably an in-world tutorial starting off a storyline, and a progression system to make your allomancy more powerful, within the range of possibilities. For example, it's never stated how far away you can push/pull something, but we know there are limits (Wax couldn't push himself all the way up a skyscraper, for example), so that's something you could upgrade to some extent to get an edge.

I'm still unsure what is causing the FPS to drop, so it'll be interesting to see if the Noble Keep will run smoother than the large open areas.

Until then,

Happy new year, all!

[Spinn he/him]

0.10 Update: Combat, Levels and NPCs

Here it is! Fully animated NPCs attacking you, a koloss boss monster and a couple more levels to traverse!

Guards

Like before, the guards are pretty weak and slow. A few coins or melee hits (middle mouse button) and they're dead. Don't let them gang up on you, though!

Koloss

The koloss is faster than you and a lot stronger, so make sure you use your powers to survive long enough to get hits in! It's extremely tough, so take cover and shoot it from afar, or let it chase some guards if you have to! The koloss is sitting on a pretty nice heap of stuff, so you'll be well rewarded for your troubles.

New levels

You start in the new Noble Keep. The front door leads to the new Skaa Market area, while the back door in the ball room leads to the old Skaa subsurb area.

I realized the new levels made the download file a lot bigger, so I'm thinking I'll combine the two exterior ones in the future, taking the best parts from each. Check out the original post for the download link and all the new features!

I also realized I left the entrance to a secret room unlockable... There's nothing in there, but the first person to find it, and posts a picture or video of it in this topic, gets to decide what painting is hung in the main entrance for coming versions! As long as it works in-world, and I won't get sued for it, it'll be fine. The right hand of the Survivor will show the way.

Happy hunting!

Edited January 5, 2021 by Spinn

[+Artemos he/him]

It's fun! I eventually killed the koloss, after several tries and figuring out how to cheat the combat system. It took a lot of punching and running backwards before he could land a hit.

Spoiler

Spoiler

It was satisfying to figure out how to beat the guards quickly by quickly burning pewter and hitting them twice.

I really liked the effect of burning tin making the mists more translucent.

Also... Is this the secret room?

Spoiler

 

[Spinn he/him]

@Artemos Great job on killing the koloss, and YES, that is the secret room! I'll DM you about the award!

EDIT: I expected pretty much only troll suggestions, but Artemos had some truly awesome ideas. I'm psyched to implement them.

Edited January 6, 2021 by Spinn

[Spinn he/him]

Help me with your knowledge!

So I'm working through my ideas for a story and I'm in need of some knowledge. Since I've only read Mistborn (era 1 & parts of 2), I don't have much knowledge about investiture itself. Are there any reasons to which a person's investiture could be partially blocked? (If we're going into spoiler territory, please put it behind a spoiler tag)

My idea for the story is set during the Well of Ascension and you're playing as a noble heir.

Heavy spoilers for The Well of Ascension

Spoiler

 

Your father is a lord of the Assembly and you get kidnapped by a Mistborn from the fallen House Elariel (who is known to have one unrevealed Mistborn from the books). This is an attempt to blackmail your father to vote for Cett when King Venture's claim to the throne is challenged. The kidnapping makes you snap, become Mistborn yourself and escape, but your powers are rather weak. You find a mentor who comments on how weak they are (Or few? Maybe you can't access all of them), and you'll have to train and unlock your powers during the course of the game, perhaps finding the treatment to unblock whatever is wrong you. This will, of course, heavily influence where you can go, what areas you can reach, and how your powers work.

One idea is that your mentor is Dockson, who has knowledge about Allomancy, but is not a practitioner himself, and that the game follows the timeline of the Well of Ascension pretty closely, which would mean he dies close to the climax.

 

So, is this feasible? Is there something that could be blocking investiture - or could I invent that particular something without enraging the entire Cosmere community?

Edited January 6, 2021 by Spinn

[Kingsdaughter613 she/her]

4 minutes ago, Spinn said:

Help me with your knowledge!

So I'm working through my ideas for a story and I'm in need of some knowledge. Since I've only read Mistborn (era 1 & parts of 2), I don't have much knowledge about investiture itself. Are there any reasons to which a person's investiture could be partially blocked? (If we're going into spoiler territory, please put it behind a spoiler tag)

My idea for the story is set during the Well of Ascension and you're playing as a noble heir.

Heavy spoilers for The Well of Ascension

  Hide contents

 

Your father is a lord of the Assembly and you get kidnapped by a Mistborn from the fallen House Elariel (who is known to have one unrevealed Mistborn from the books). This is an attempt to blackmail your father to vote for Cett when King Venture's claim to the throne is challenged. The kidnapping makes you snap, become Mistborn yourself and escape, but your powers are rather weak. You find a mentor who comments on how weak they are (Or few? Maybe you can't access all of them), and you'll have to train and unlock your powers during the course of the game, perhaps finding the treatment to unblock whatever is wrong you. This will, of course, heavily influence where you can go, what areas you can reach, and how your powers work.

One idea is that your mentor is Dockson, who has knowledge about Allomancy, but is not a practitioner himself, and that the game follows the timeline of the Well of Ascension pretty closely, which would mean he dies close to the climax.

 

So, is this feasible? Is there something that could be blocking investiture - or could I invent that particular something without enraging the entire Cosmere community?

We don’t know of anything that would do that, no. Or at least not that would occur in Mistborn. (Things involving Connection to Preservation might.) 

However, many more advanced allomantic techniques can only be unlocked through practice and experience, so that could work as an explanation. It can also be noted that your character gets better at pushing themselves and utilizing their metals over time.